Josh Hamilton wrote his name into the history books in Baltimore tonight, becoming just the 14th player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a single game, launching two off Orioles starter Jake Arrieta, one off reliever Zach Phillips, and one off side-armer Darren O’Day.

He’s just the third player to ever record a fifth extra base hit in the game in which he also hit four homers, as he added a double to rack up 18 total bases on the night. Only Shawn Green in 2002 and Joe Adcock in 1954 added a fifth XBH to their big night, and prior to tonight, those were the only games in history where a player had accumulated at least 18 total bases in a single performance. Green actually added a single as well, so he still stands alone with 19 total bases based on his 6-6 night.

Hamilton homered in his final at-bat in last night’s game, so over the span of six plate appearances, he managed to hit five home runs and a double. It will take a little more digging to confirm, but there’s a pretty good chance that no one has ever done that before.

Hamilton now has 14 home runs on the season, two more than the San Diego Padres and just three behind the Minnesota Twins. As far as FanGraphs metrics go, Hamilton entered the night with a .474 wOBA and raised it to .536, passing Matt Kemp for the best mark in baseball. For the evening, he posted a wRC+ of 1,212. His wRC+ for the year is now 247 – Babe Ruth’s highest single season wRC+ was .235.

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Can’t really decide which. Hamilton plays for a better hitting team in a hitter-friendly park so he’ll have more protection and chances to drive in runs, but I think he’ll probably have stronger challenges from other hitters in his league.

I think Hamilton has the better shot at winning the triple crown because his natural contact ability is greater than Kemp’s. Remember that Hamilton has already won one batting title and has a lifetime average well over .300. Kemp goes through stretches where he strikes out too much to maintain a .350 or .370 average all season.

Is ZIPS or another projection system projecting Hamilton and/or Kemp to win the triple crown (e.g., based on their current performance combined with projected performance relative to the projections for the field)? Not sure how to find this, but it would be interesting… Hamilton/Kemp can widen their lead while they are still hot at start the year, they might be able to win it even as they regress over the remainder of the season.

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It certainly doesn’t look good for them now, but it was never a question of the FO questioning his talent. Hamilton wanted to leave after they fired Narron, and they let him go. We can quibble all day with what they got back for him (I’d very much like Feliz or Holland in the rotation right now), but there wasn’t much they could’ve done to keep him in Cincinnati.

That must have been an intoxicating sight to see live. Sitting in the stands, sipping on a coke, breathing in the freshly cut grass and marveling in each crack of the bat. Drinking it all in, watching Hamilton take that high ball and drill it past the warning tracks…he was a hero in a lot eyes, tonight.

I had always wondered (though not intensely enough to really experiment) if it was possible to accumulate more than 1 WAR during a single game… with Hamilton getting 0.8 last night, I’m glad to see that the answer is, at the very least “extremely unlikely”.

I guess if something truly unprecedented happened and a pitcher went 14IP/35K/0BB/0H you could get there? Maybe a batter going for 6 or 7 HR in a game? Depending on run environment, of course.

How do you know this? Walter Johnson threw 95 mph, I suspect he wasn’t the only MLB pitcher with a 90 mph fastball. The talent level may not be the same as today, but I seriously doubt it was Sally leauge.

Phrozen: They had ways of measuring the speed of a baseball before the radar gun. They weren’t as precise, but they were still able to give a good estimate.

Big Train had one pitch measured in a gravity-drop interval recorder (no idea how precise its readings were), and it registered as 91 mph. I speculate that the fact that only one pitch was recorded suggests that it was very difficult to get a reading and that Johnson may have thrown a lot of pitches. A speeding motorcycle had Johnson at over 99. These obviously aren’t the most accurate measurements, but it’s not a stretch to suggest that he could throw as hard as any starter today.

“It will take a little more digging to confirm, but there’s a pretty good chance that no one has ever done that before.”

Shawn Green, among others holds the record for: most home runs in two consecutive games (5), most home runs in three consecutive games (7), and most consecutive home runs (4). He hit his 4 home runs, 5 extra base hits, and 19 total bases against the Milwaukee Brewers in 2002.

Trivia on 4 HR’s in a game. Gil hodges of the Dodgers hit 4 HR’s in a game against the Braves in August of 1950. In 1954 Joe Adcock of the Brave s hit 4 HR’s in a game against the Dodgers, Gil Hodges also hit a HR in that game. Willie mays hit 4 HR’s in a game against the Braves in April of 1961, Joe Adcock played in that game against the Giants but did not homer. Spooky.
When Mike Schmidt hit his 4 HR’s in a game he homered off two brothers in that game, Rick Reuschel twice and Paul Reuschel once.
When Bob Horner had his 4 HR game in 1986 he only drove in 6 runs, he also only hit only 13 more HR’s in his career and retired after many injures at age 30.